According to a January 2019 survey from product experience management platform Salsify, US digital shoppers expect an average of about six images, and three videos when looking at a product on Amazon or another retailer.

In the latest episode of "Behind the Numbers," we sit down with Matt Alexander, co-founder of Neighborhood Goods, which mixes department store concepts and digital native brands. What do D2C brands want from a retail presence? And does the department store format have a future?

Last year, the number of locations offering “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPUS) nearly doubled among leading US grocery retailers. Walmart (and various third-party partners), Target/Shipt, Kroger/Instacart, Ahold and Albertsons brought their collective number of click-and-collect locations from 2,451 in January 2018 to 5,800 in December 2018, per data from CommonSense Robotics.

With smartphones ubiquitous, marketers have new ways of linking online advertising with offline actions. This enhanced online-to-offline (O2O) view exposes a broader swath of the path to purchase and more accurately reveals advertising effectiveness.

In China, consumers can “smile to pay” in some stores, but in the US, facial recognition systems for shopping are more theory than fact. Will that change? In today’s episode of “Behind the Numbers,” we sit down with Peter Trepp, CEO of facial recognition software firm FaceFirst.

Smartphone retail mcommerce sales will make up 34% of all US ecommerce sales this year, reaching $203.94 billion. While desktop purchases still dominate—amounting to $331.85 billion in 2019—they are growing at a rate of just 5.0%.

Gen Z is a tough generation for retailers to figure out. They grew up on the internet, but don't like to be targeted with ads there, and crave authenticity in all of their interactions. We parsed the research to help retailers figure it out.

Following bankruptcies of other retail stalwarts from a bygone era like Sears, Toys "R" Us and Mattress Firm, Payless’ demise doesn’t come as a shock, yet it is another cautionary tale of a retailer that failed to evolve its brand.

Two-thirds of US shoppers typically start their search for new products on Amazon, according to a March 2019 Feedvisor study that polled respondents who have purchased from the marketplace in the past two years. By contrast, two in 10 respondents use a search engine like Google, and just 3% look to another marketplace.

The share of consumers using mobile devices for retail purchases is lower in France and Germany than in several other nations in Western Europe. Yet together, the two countries will account for over $45 billion in mobile sales in 2018.